Subject of radical Islamic extremism is rather complex and to understand it properly is not only necessary to turn back from the sensationalistic media attention it gained recently but also many prejudice that surrounds it. Recent terrorist activities in Europe introduced it in a sort of apocalyptic way. People’s fear and interests is emerging every day but it seems like nobody quite understands what is behind it and what causes motivates it to expand further and further.

This thesis examines historical evolution of radical Islamic extremism to picture main causes for its development. Its aim is to deliver better understanding of this phenomenon so essential for determining future approaches and policies and for the demystification of the problem that surrounds it.
Timespan covered can be traced from early medieval times through Wahhabi movement and modern ideologies of Maulana Mawdudi and Sayyid Qutb toward Afghanistan war.
Afghanistan is extremely important as it is how it emerged on the global scene for the first time, transformed its self into trans-national movement with aim for global recognition under clearly set ideological guidelines, ideals and claims that will eventually transform it into Al-Qaeda and all other extreme radical terrorist groups that emerged later.

I’m analyzing radical Islamic extremism with New Social Movement Theory to understand its roots and what unifies them and Relative Deprivation Theory to understand what impact different feelings of grievance or frustrations could have influenced its rise. I’m exploring political, economic, social and psychological background of their members to define different typologies of identities that constitute those organizations and reasons for their radicalization. As you will be presented with chronological progression of the movement and its causes it will become clearer why I also decided to analyze western military involvements and where I find the causal link with today’s situation.